


kyuline | 11:59PM

by plincess_cho (ai_hao)



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ, EXO (Band), SHINee, Super Junior
Genre: ChangKyu - Freeform, Gen, Kyuline, and their baby choi minho, loves of my life, new year's fic, non-au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 01:43:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17235068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ai_hao/pseuds/plincess_cho
Summary: Kyuhyun spends New Year's Eve thinking about what 2019 might bring.





	kyuline | 11:59PM

It’s 11:50PM on New Year’s Eve, and Kyuhyun is lying awake in the dorms. Minho’s  [ locked himself into the bathroom ](https://twitter.com/MoonsLounge/status/1079270739407036416) and is pretending that he hasn’t had too much to drink, and Changmin’s off deciding which bottle of wine they should open next. Junmyeon had promised that he would wander downstairs later to grace them all with his presence but has yet to make an appearance, and of course, Jonghyun, the fifth member of their illustrious band of miscreants, is off serving his country.

It feels just like how they used to ring in the new year (and Chuseok and Liberation Day and Children’s Day and any given Tuesday) back before Changmin had left to serve: They’d drink themselves silly and spend the entire night playing video games, serenading their neighbors with better-than-average karaoke, and watching infomercials. 

But then Changmin had enlisted and hadn’t had much time to devote to alcoholic get-togethers, and things had changed. Kyuhyun had experienced this with the various members leaving--after all, Super Junior had been going through enlistment since 2010--but this had been different. Changmin leaving--and  _ really _ leaving, not just withdrawing from promotions in favor of what was basically a glorified day job--had brought up all sorts of bad memories for both of them. Kyuhyun had never dealt well with people leaving. 

Yet Changmin had come home, and they’d hugged and talked like nothing had changed even though they both knew the truth. Changmin had come back different, and the Kyuhyun he had come back to hadn’t been the same one that he had left. It was natural, they had concluded, but that didn’t mean that they hadn’t had to work to fit back together again.

Tonight seems to be the celebration of those years of enlistment. After all, this is the year that Kyuhyun will be freed of his mandatory enlistment duties and will be able to properly return to society.

“You’re like a debutante,” Changmin had informed him when he had made this proclamation to the others.

“A what?”

“I saw it in an American movie,” he’d replied. “You throw a ball to announce your ‘coming out’ into society. Basically, you’re telling the world that you’re old enough to get married.”

“But Kyuhyun’s been old enough to get married for quite some time now,” a fairly-buzzed Minho had said, not really following the conversation.

“And he’s told the entire world already,” Changmin had replied with an uproarious cackle.

Kyuhyun had smacked him.

He’s more than ready to return to normal life. While his work at the library is interesting and while he does enjoy the extra time he has to spend with friends, he’s ready to sing somewhere besides his shower. He had been quite jealous of the hyungs who had gotten to perform during their own service periods, though he had to admit, he hadn’t been jealous of their early morning drills or standard-issue military haircuts. 

Oh the hyungs. He is really ready to be properly back with the rest of them. It had been more than a few years since he’d gotten to perform with some of them: Siwon, Hyukjae, Donghae, Ryeowook. These days it seems that anytime they all gather together, things seem… off. It makes sense: After all, they haven’t been properly together for years now, and so many things have changed since the last time they were all actively performing. Everything seems off-kilter, and Kyuhyun hopes that with the end of enlistment drawing near, they’ll be able to find the mojo that had made them Asia’s number one boyband once again.

Minho manages to free himself from the bathroom and wanders into the living room to flop onto the floor next to where Kyuhyun is stretched out on the couch. Oh Minho, their youngest. Both he and Junmyeon will have to enlist this coming year thanks to the new enlistment requirements, and for once, Kyuhyun feels woefully inadequate as their senior. He should be the one giving them tips on how to survive their military terms, suggesting that they stock up on good quality skin products and female idols’ phone numbers, but he hadn’t gone through the same track they will enter. 

“It doesn’t matter,” Changmin had tried to reassure him when he’d expressed his frustrations over the issue. “You have 87 hyungs plus  _ Yunho _ who will all give him more than enough advice, so all you have to do is write him a letter every so often to let him know you haven’t forgotten him.”

Changmin had been right--as usual. That’s the thing about Changmin: He always tells it like it is. No sugarcoating, no bullshit, but he always does it with the best of intentions. Straightforward and sincere, two of the qualities Kyuhyun has always liked best in him.

“Are you excited for next year?” Minho asks, rolling onto his back and looking up at Kyuhyun.

Kyuhyun rolls onto his side to look down at him. “Yeah,” he replies. “But it’ll be different.”

“Yeah,” Minho replies. “I’m not gonna have hair,” he says very somberly, and Kyuhyun snorts in response. But he reaches out his hand, and Minho takes it.

It  _ is _ going to be different, at least different than it is now. He’ll be an active member again, he’ll probably release another solo album in the fall, and things will go back to being how they’ve always been. But he’s getting older and time isn’t slowing down and maybe the others will want to do something else and and and…

And Changmin reemerges from the kitchen, carrying a bottle of wine in one hand and a corkscrew in the other, curbing his existential dread for now. He manages to get up from the couch and pull Minho up from the floor. Changmin pours them all glasses with Minho getting the plastic one just in case. Red wine is much easier to clean up from hardwood floors than shards of broken glass.

The dorm floors have seen far worse over the years that Super Junior members have occupied them. They’d seen alcohol spills, piles of sweaty rehearsal clothes, and of course, Hyukjae’s bare feet. It still amuses Kyuhyun to no end that the  [ EXO kids could tell the difference in smell ](http://superzoonior.tumblr.com/post/129881924122/if-you-are-a-member-of-a-male-idol-group-you) between the two floors Super Junior used to occupy. 

They’d all loved the dorms, much to everyone’s surprise. Besides being incredibly convenient and fairly cost effective, living in the dorms had always been… oddly comforting. When asked why they had all lived together for so many years despite being more than able to buy places of their own, they had all given noncommittal answers about how it was cheap and easy or about how they hated moving, but the real answer had been that they had simply liked it. Donghae had been the only one brave enough to say it; he had always been the one to pour all of his love and affection onto anyone he deemed worthy, and he had loved having most of the people he loved the most within shouting distance. 

Even when the other members had all moved out, Kyuhyun had opted to stay. It had been one of the few things that he had been able to hold onto when everything felt like it had been slipping through his fingers. From the members leaving whether due to enlistment or… other reasons or their future after the hiatus seeming so uncertain or when even his own voice had been in jeopardy, staying in the dorms had seemed like the only thing that wouldn’t slip away.

The members still come back to the dorms, and sometimes it feels like they all had never left. They’ll all laugh and goof around and make stupid bets about dumb things, and they’ll all be transported back to the early days when they were all naive and energetic, ready to face the world. Kyuhyun misses those days sometimes… minus the part about him being in the hospital. Yet that car accident had solidified his place in Super Junior more than anything, proving that even terrible things had a purpose.

The clock ticks closer to midnight, and the three of them open the shades to the windows so they can look out for the fireworks that will surely go off to ring in the new year. The television blares on the side with enthusiastic MC’s counting down the seconds before the year ends. It’s fitting, he thinks, to be here with two of the people he loves the most in the world. Minho’s already lost his wine glass somewhere and has his arms around both of their shoulders, holding them close as he counts down with the TV.

Kyuhyun just smiles and looks over at Changmin who gives him a knowing smile in return. They hadn’t been sure how this year would treat Minho, but they both will agree that he’s ending this year in better shape than he’d started. He feels like their kid sometimes, and Kyuhyun knows that both of them would do anything for him. 

The final seconds count down, and he feels Minho’s grip tighten around his shoulder as he pulls him closer. Kyuhyun wonders what this next year will be like: Will it be filled with happiness and joy or sorrow and despair? Probably a combination of both, he rationalizes, but he sincerely prays that the joy will outweigh the pain that’s sure to come. 

After all, they’ve been through hell before, but it hasn’t beaten them. 

_ Three, two, one, HAPPY NEW YEAR! _

Minho yells the greeting into his ear as they hear fireworks explode in the distance. The bright lights illuminate the night sky as if to symbolize the dawning of a new morning. 

_ Happy new year. _

They stay up for a little while longer watching the new year’s coverage on TV. Junmyeon makes an appearance, notably less intoxicated than the three of them. He hugs them all and wishes them a happy new year before dragging Minho upstairs to help them eat through the obscene amounts of takeout they had ordered. Changmin and Kyuhyun wave goodbye before yawning in unison.

“We really are old,” Changmin grouses, and Kyuhyun just chuckles.

They click off the television and recover Minho’s missing wine glass that had helpfully been placed into a cupboard for safekeeping before stumbling into Kyuhyun’s bedroom to tuck themselves into bed.

“This year’s going to be a lot different, isn’t it?” Kyuhyun muses.

“Mmhmm,” Changmin murmurs from where he’s burrowed into the blankets beside him. 

“It’s going to be weird coming back,” Kyuhyun continues. “I mean I’ve waited for this for two years, but it’s going to be so weird. What if it’s a huge flop or what if I can’t sing anymore or what if everything’s changed and--”

But he hears the sound of Changmin’s even, methodical breathing and realizes that Changmin has already fallen asleep. 

“At least some things don’t change,” Kyuhyun says softly.

He tucks himself in next to Changmin and closes his eyes. It’s a new year filled with new hopes and dreams, and Kyuhyun intends to make the absolute best of it.

But first, it’s time to sleep. After all, tomorrow is a big day. 

The first day of 2019.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are love ♡
> 
> [Twitter](twittter.com/plincess_cho) / [Tumblr](plincess-cho.tumblr.com)
> 
> You can find more kyuline fics → here.  
>  You can also find more changkyu fics → [here.](https://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&include_work_search%5Brelationship_ids%5D%5B%5D=293470&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bexcluded_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bcrossover%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_from%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_to%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_from%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_to%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&user_id=ai_hao)


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